creation apps

Many teachers use portfolios to collect and showcase student work throughout the year. These portfolios demonstrate growth over time, provide a means for authentic assessment, promote communication and reflection, and can give some students an alternative means to demonstrate mastery of skills. Portfolios, whether analog or digital, are individualized and promote student agency and self-efficacy.

While portfolios often reflect long-term projects or activities, they don’t necessarily have to. Small moments, ideas, and “aha’s” happen daily. How can these be captured, reflected and expanded on? The Clips app is a good solution. It is an iOS app for making and sharing videos, incorporating text, voice over, music, and graphics. Using the camera on an iOS device, like iPad, students (or teachers) can capture everyday moments as students work individually or collaboratively.

After the images are collected, they are uploaded into the Clips app. The combined clips are saved to make a video. This video can then be viewed by student and teacher, then reflected on. Some questions for reflection might include: “Tell me about your work” “Why did you choose to do it this way?” “I saw you had some trouble, how did you solve the problem?”This reflection helps make thinking and learning visible for students. The final video can be shared with peers and parents as well. To extend the learning, students may blog or journal about their reflections. Here is an example of Clips demonstrating the concept. You can see the video here.

Clips is a free app in the App Store. It is easy to use and can create short videos or students can continually add to existing videos, much like a regular e-portfolio. There are many benefits to using video in education, such as increased student motivation, enhanced learning experiences, development of learner autonomy, and authentic learning opportunities.

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A work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament. -Oscar Wilde

As a classroom teacher, I see many personalities and temperaments daily. As we work together, it is impossible not to know a child’s likes or dislikes, their interests and what turns them off. All of my students want to shine. Some shine more brilliantly than others, in a way that no one can miss. Others shine more softly and feathery, like the moonlight. The key is to weave these differences together into a tapestry that works and thrives together in a classroom.

One thing they all have in common is the love of art. They love going to art class for special area and they love cutting, gluing, pasting, coloring and painting in class. Most of them create excitedly and without hesitation, but a few of them have been bitten by the “not good enough” bug and are afraid to draw a bold line and get started for fear of doing it wrong. When my students are creating, their engagement is nearly unbreakable. So, why do we put art off until “after you finish your work?” In our class, when we are creating content, art is a necessary part of the process.

As adults, sometimes we see art as frivolous and something one does in one’s free time. (And really, how much of THAT do we have?) When we remove creativity and creation from our classrooms, we are teaching our children that it doesn’t have value…their creative selves are to be kept separate from their thinking selves. Art is so much more than drawing and coloring. Art is photography, music, poetry, writing, film making, and more. How can these not play an important role in learning? When students are able to use their talents, or develop and explore talents they didn’t know they had, they are learning how to be diverse individuals who have something unique to contribute.

I’ve always been interested in photography, but never really pursued it for many reasons, all mostly just excuses. I finally made room in my life for it and can’t believe what I have missed out on for so long in not pursuing it. I can’t imagine my life now, without it!

As I watch my students work individually and collaboratively on projects, it is gratifying to see them encouraging each other as they work on creating content. The creation apps on our iPads such as Explain Everything, Book Creator, Pic Collage, Strip Designer, Popplet and iMovie all contribute to the wealth of workflow in our curriculum. Each piece of work is as different and unique as the child that created it. And THAT is exactly why I teach…to celebrate and develop the uniqueness of each child.

I encourage and challenge you to look for the art in your classroom. Is it put on the shelf for when work is finished or is it integrated into the workflow of the day as a regular part of learning?

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My mother was my world and she brought reading into it. -Donalyn Miller, The Book Whisperer

I was fortunate that I came from a family of readers. Everyone read and the love of it was instilled in me very early. I wish the same could be said for all of my students, and because it isn’t a priority in every home, I make sure to make it is a priority for the 7 hours they are with me Monday through Friday.

We talk about books and immerse ourselves in literacy building activities all day long. We compare books and authors. We compare writing styles and illustrations. We do author studies and we use mentor texts in our Writer’s Workshop time. I create books for my students in iBooks Author and in Book Creator. I put them on their iPads and they have “just right” books at their fingertips all the time. So, it isn’t surprising to me that my students are eager to make their own books.

Our favorite app for student-created books is Book Creator. I’ve written about my ongoing love affair with the Book Creator app many times, and now, you have the ability to draw within the app itself. After introducing my students to this versatile app, I was immediately asked if they could make a book. Many work on them during their free choice time. At this point, they are fairly short books. Here are a few screen shots from one of the first books a student created.

Because he recorded his voice reading the book, I can’t upload the file. This book was 5 pages, including the ever popular “The End” page. He worked every free chance he had over a couple of days to complete it. Because we use Showbie, I can upload his book to the shared folder and all of the other students can download his book and have it on their bookshelves. This is a great way for students to share their work with their peers.

Another student started a Space book in Pic Collage. It is not finished but her intention is to create several pages, save to her camera roll and upload into Book Creator. Here is one of the first pages of her book:

I love the enthusiasm and creativity of these children. I love how their excitement over creating a book is so genuine. I love how their eyes widened and they bubbled over with excitement when they saw the Book Creator app and what it could do.

Giving children choice in how they demonstrate their learning is a mainstay in our classroom. My students take charge of their learning through the use of these creation apps. They think nothing of using multiple apps to create a final product. They create and combine on their own with confidence. They are able to upload their final work to Showbie independently. They are proud of their work and are eager to share.

As a parent and as a teacher, I want my children and my students to feel the joy of being a reader. By bringing my own love of reading to the classroom, my students are discovering they are able to create their own books, make their own art, and share the joy with others as well.

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I’ve been teaching myself Spanish. I’ve used a variety of methods, including Rosetta Stone. All have taught me some good basic Spanish; however, nothing has helped me more than having actual conversation in Spanish. Well, conversation may be a bit overstated…I’m ok as long as the other person speaks very slowly and we only use the present tense. It’s definitely a process.

How do you learn best? For me, it depends on what I am learning. Sometimes I need to take notes, other times I need to think out loud. Some things are easier to learn with another person while with other things, I need to be alone. My guess is most of us have different styles for learning depending on what it is we are working on.

Our students are no different. They all learn different things in different ways and at different rates. Kids today learn from a variety of sources. They learn from television, peers, computers, video games, and social media. Technology in our classrooms allow our students to explore different approaches to learning.

We have spent some time learning about the rainforest. I recently blogged about how my students use planning sheets to map out their day and their learning experiences. To share some of their knowledge gained about the rainforest, my kids chose which creation app to use and then demonstrated their knowledge through the iPad. Below are ways 2 different children chose to share with me what they have learned.

One child chose to use Doodle Buddy and Pic Collage and the other chose to make a Popplet and import it into a Pages document. Other students in my class chose different ways. A few chose Explain Everything, a few chose Book Creator and some chose to use drawing paper, crayons and pencils. When students have choices they see themselves as participants and contributors to their own education.

My students, even in kindergarten, like the ability and the responsibility of making these choices about their school day. Some of the choices given to them are “must-do’s” and some are “may-do’s”. One child wrote about planning her day in Writer’s Workshop.

Motivating students to achieve can be difficult in this hyper-paced world. Giving students choices to work and learn in the manner that best suits them makes them stake holders in their own education. One of the best ways to learn something is by doing it. Let’s go for it!

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.-Aristotle

When was the last time you were an action figure Super Hero? I ask, because I am apparently one today. It is Teacher Appreciation Week and my room mom decorated my classroom door with pictures of my assistant and me dressed as The Incredibles. It was particularly exciting to my kids to see us on the door like that…and I must admit, I’m kind of digging the whole super- ripped, super hero body going on there.

I’m not a Super Hero in real life, nor do I play one on tv, but there are times when we must don our Super Hero apparel and create magic in a classroom full of young children. Engaging students today is no easy feat. There are many things that compete for their attention. Even with iPads, there are times when I look around my classroom and wonder what planet I just landed on because those children are NOT my students!

I find when I am using our creation apps (Explain Everything, Educreations, Pic Collage, Book Creator, iDiary, etc…) my students are far more engaged and tend to become mini-super heroes themselves. Their work is better, the content is deeper, their conversations are richer. These are not mindless apps that keep children occupied like a video game. They start with a blank canvas and end with a brand-new creation that wouldn’t have been possible without the technology. This blank slate-to-masterpiece approach, has transformed our classroom and how we learn. We are working on the habit of excellence.

My kids love to learn and they love to create. Yes, Thomas is under the table working on his masterpiece. He likes it there because he can work undisturbed. Look at his face. Is there any doubt he loves what he is doing?

Happy, engaged children make this Super Hero pretty happy. Creating the habit of excellence starts on day one in your classroom. Examine your classroom and see if you have created a habit of excellence.

Recent Posts from my Photography Blog: Kristi Meeuwse

Dr. Kristi Meeuwse

Meet Kristi

I am a kindergarten teacher in a 1:1 iPad classroom and am an Apple Distinguished Educator. I teach at Drayton Hall Elementary in Charleston, SC which is an Apple Distinguished School. I am also a Discovery Education STAR educator.
I am passionate about literacy and personalizing learning in the classroom. I've taught for 24 years.

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